Drones in the United States…good grief, what’s next?, Re: Drones are taking to the skies in the U.S., Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2013

Americans are becoming more and more concerned about the use of drones in the United States as their use is widespread and increasing. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, 1,428 permits have been issued to drone operators in the U.S. since 2007 and 327 of them are still listed as active. Operators include police, universities and various state and federal departments and agencies. The Federal Aviation Administration also has a September, 2015 Congressional deadline to open airspace in the U.S. to drones, which will dramatically add to their numbers and increase their use.

Americans are right to be concerned, especially in this era of big government which wants to know everything there is to know about everyone, the better to manipulate and control people. Drones threaten Americans right to privacy and their privacy itself and can be easily used to collect information on people without their knowledge or permission, which is a clear violation of their freedom and civil liberties.

That information can and will be used for all kinds of secretive and nefarious purposes. Given the current mentality in Washington and state capitols around the country and given government officials, bureaucrats and functionaries inborn desire and proclivity to gather information on people for its own sake if for no other reason than that they most assuredly will be used in this manner and very probably already have.

Governments ability to spy on people is increased exponentially by drones and government being government Americans concerns about privacy, freedom and civil liberties are prudent and well-founded. Drones really do threaten American’s right to privacy, their privacy itself, their freedom and their civil liberties and Americans are absolutely correct to be concerned about their widespread and growing use.

They also can of course be weaponized and used to kill Americans on American soil as well and Americans have also expressed concerns about that. To quote the Los Angeles Times “No state or federal agency has proposed arming domestic drones with weapons, but the prospect has raised alarms in Congress and elsewhere.”

That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, it just means it hasn’t happened.

Yet.

Americans are right to be concerned about that too.

Drones seem to be with us to stay but how and why they are used is still open to question. Americans should do everything they can to make sure their elected representatives place strict limitations on their use and make sure those limitations are respected. Their right to privacy, their privacy, their freedom and their civil liberties depend on it.

Their lives might depend on it as well.

Governments and government bodies will try and assure the American people that they have nothing to fear from drones as they try to get free rein to use them at their own discretion. Americans shouldn’t believe them for a minute because they have everything to fear from their use and should insist that ironclad safeguards and limits on their use exist and are enforced. Drones give governments and government bodies great power and great power always comes with the possibility, actually the probability, of abuse. Make no mistake, abuse of power can and will occur unless their use is strictly controlled.

Government and government bodies using drones in the United States…if that isn’t a serious threat to Americans right to privacy, their privacy itself, their freedom and their civil liberties nothing is.

Governments and government bodies using drones in the United States…that doesn’t pass the smell test and never will. The very notion is un-American.

Drones in the United States…good grief, what’s next?

Particularly in the age of Obama, a President whose abuse of power is legendary and who presides over a government in which abuse of power is rampant.

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